Two different things get filed under big ears. One is a tall bare ear that forms part of the head outline, as in the Oriental, the Devon Rex, the Sphynx and the Abyssinian. The other is a large ear whose outline is mostly furnishings, as in the Maine Coon. Both standards say large. The shapes are not alike.
The distinction is worth making because it changes what you should be looking at. Fur can be brushed, clipped or shed. Ear size and ear set cannot.
Which breeds have tall bare ears?
Four make the case clearly, and each standard defines the ear against the head rather than in isolation.
Oriental. CFA asks for ears that are “strikingly large, pointed, wide at the base, continuing the straight lines of the wedge,” on a head that is a “long tapering wedge, in good proportion to body.” That is the classic tall triangular silhouette people picture first, and the ears are described as part of the head outline rather than on their own.
Devon Rex. The most unusual ear set in the group, and the only one of the four that breaks the head outline instead of following it. CFA calls for ears “strikingly large and set very low, very wide at the base, so that the outside base of ear extends beyond the line of the wedge. Tapering to rounded tops and well covered with fine fur.” Note two things: the ears break the outline of the head rather than continuing it, and the tops are rounded rather than pointed. If the cat in front of you could be either curly-coated breed, Devon Rex or Cornish Rex shows how the ears and coat settle it.
Sphynx. “Large to very large. Broad at the base, open and upright,” and CFA adds the detail that explains why they photograph so dramatically: “the interior of the ears is naturally without furnishing.” There is no hair inside to soften the opening, so the ear reads as a bare shape.
Abyssinian. “Alert, large, and moderately pointed; broad and cupped at base and set so that the outside line of the ear follows the outer line of the modified wedge shape without interruption.” The cupped base is the Abyssinian’s own signature, and the ear follows the head line rather than extending past it.
Read those four together and a pattern appears. No standard gives a measurement. Every one of them describes the ear relative to the head: continuing the line of the wedge, extending beyond it, or following it without interruption. Ear size in cats is a proportion, not a number, which is why the same ears look enormous on a fine wedge head and unremarkable on a broad round one.
Which cats have ears that read larger than they measure?
The heavily furnished breeds, and the Maine Coon is the one people name most.
CFA describes the Maine Coon’s ears as “large, well-tufted, wide at base, tapering to appear pointed,” set “approximately one ear’s width apart at the base; not flared.” Large, and also tufted, which is the word doing most of the visual work. Hair grows from inside the ear, called furnishings, and often from the tips as well, called lynx tips. Both add apparent height and width on top of an ear the standard already calls large.
This is why a Maine Coon and an Oriental can both be described as having big ears and look nothing alike. One has a broad, furnished ear set high and close on a rectangular head. The other has a bare, tall, straight-sided ear continuing the line of a long wedge. Flatten the furnishings on the first and the silhouette changes a great deal. Do the same to the second and nothing changes, because no hair was contributing to the shape.
Other long-coated breeds carry the same trick, and the Maine Coon versus Norwegian Forest Cat comparison shows how little the tufts help in separating two cats that both have them.
How do you tell the two apart in a photo?
Three checks, in order.
Look at the outline, not the fur. Follow the outer edge of the ear from the base to the tip and ignore everything growing out of it. A bare ear is wide at the base and keeps that width most of the way up, in one clean line. A furnished ear narrows under the hair, and much of the outline you think you are seeing is fur.
Look at where the ear sits. This is the most reliable check and the one nobody mentions. The Devon Rex’s ears sit so low that their outside base extends beyond the line of the wedge. The Abyssinian’s follow the head’s outer line exactly. The Oriental’s continue the straight lines of the wedge upward, so the head and ears form one unbroken triangle. The Maine Coon’s sit high and close, about one ear’s width apart, not flared. Ear set is a skull fact, and a photo taken straight on shows it clearly.
Look inside the ear. The Sphynx standard is explicit that the interior is naturally without furnishing. A bare ear canal with visible skin reads very differently from an ear filled with hair, and the difference is obvious even in a phone photo.
Take the photo head on and at the cat’s own eye level. Shot from above, every ear looks smaller and the set is impossible to judge. Shot from below, every ear looks enormous.
What else travels with big ears?
Quite a lot, which is the useful part. In every one of these breeds the ear is one line in a description of a whole cat, so if the ears really do point somewhere, the rest of the cat should agree.
The Oriental is “long and svelte. A distinctive combination of fine bones and firm muscles,” with almond eyes slanted toward the nose and, CFA notes, over 600 possible color, pattern and coat length combinations. The Abyssinian is “medium long, lithe and graceful,” with almond eyes described as “neither round nor oriental,” and a coat “long enough to accommodate two or three dark bands of ticking” on each hair. The Devon Rex is “hard and muscular, lithe, and of medium length,” with large oval eyes, a rippled wave to the coat and a head built from “a narrowing series of three distinct convex curves.” The Sphynx is “medium length, hard and muscular with broad rounded chest and full round abdomen,” with large lemon-shaped eyes and desirable wrinkling around the muzzle and between the ears.
If your cat has tall ears and a broad, cobby, heavily boned body, the ears are not telling you what you think they are.
The likeliest answer
A cat with noticeably large ears and no paperwork is most often an unregistered domestic shorthair. Ear size varies enormously in cats that belong to no breed, and because every standard above describes the ear against the head rather than in absolute terms, a lean cat with a narrow head will read as big-eared regardless of ancestry.
If you want a second opinion on the whole silhouette rather than one feature, photograph the cat head on in daylight at its own eye level and let the app read the proportions. Cat Identifier returns the breeds your cat most resembles as a percentage mix, with the traits behind each match. It reports visible likeness rather than ancestry, and only registration papers from a registry establish pedigree.
For the breeds where ear set and head shape do most of the identifying work, lynx point Siamese covers the wedge-headed group, is my cat a Maine Coon covers the furnished group, and what breed is my cat walks the features in the order a photo can actually read them.
Sources
- Oriental breed profile and show standard, The Cat Fanciers' Association
- Abyssinian breed profile and show standard, The Cat Fanciers' Association
- Devon Rex breed profile and show standard, The Cat Fanciers' Association
- Sphynx breed profile and show standard, The Cat Fanciers' Association
- Maine Coon Cat breed profile and show standard, The Cat Fanciers' Association